Thursday, June 14, 2007

Satisfying Exhaustion

Today:Run 30 milesYesterday:Bike commute 3 milesRest of the day off

Had the day off from work today and got in a great 30 mile run. Felt so good after the run that I even went into work for a few hours. Not really sure why I did that. Mostly to pick up my paycheck but then I stayed for a few hours and forgot to cash my check anyway.

Sure am pretty tired out tonight though. Went to see a play at the local theatre and had all I could do to make it through the show sitting like that without enough room to stretch out my legs. Luckily it was a great performance or I would have been likely to walk out and stroll around on the street. Haven't slept well for a few night but I'm going to sleep well tonight.

I've often felt like 30 miles is a threshold distance for me. I usually have little to no specific trouble with runs less than 30 but anything 30 or longer I feel like I need to approach the run in a different way. 30 miles seems to be the point at which I need to consume massive amounts of calories to continue and also the point at which my feet begin to really ache from all the pounding. I also typically do some walking on runs 30 miles or longer. Today though 30 miles just seemed really short and easy. I only ate 450 calories during the run and didn't feel all that depleted after. My feet or legs never really hurt much at all. And I didn't walk any of the run. It was all on trail, a fairly technical trail, and I was still able to complete it in about 4:20. Not fast by racing standards but considering how easy it seemed and how little I pushed myself I was pretty amazed to finish it that quickly. Before today I was already pretty certain that I was in really good shape as far as longer stuff is concerned, but now I am pretty sure I'm in the best shape I've ever been in... I just need to find a little more speed and shorter burst power.